


What’s Next

by Prinxly



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Character Study, Don’t worry there are line breaks, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, LetEdaSayFuck2k21, POV Alternating, Spoilers for Episode: s01ep18 Young Blood Old Souls, additional characters as I get to them I guess?, idk if I’ll continue this or not, rated for language used
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:15:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26193991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prinxly/pseuds/Prinxly
Summary: “Lilith didn’t know what to do with herself. Her entire career, the large majority of her life had been shattered within the span of a day. Not that she had any regrets about that part, but she had so many regrets when it came to her sister.“Spoilers for YBOS!The different POVs of Luz, Eda and Lilith literally immediately after their last scene in Young Blood Old Souls
Relationships: Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne, Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda
Comments: 9
Kudos: 142





	1. Rest

Luz let out a sigh as the adrenaline of the last 48 hours finally started to ebb away. To think that just a couple mornings ago, Lilith was raiding the Owl House, and now she had helped save her sister’s life and was just as much on the run as the rest of them; well, Luz could say with certainty that she hadn’t expected any of what she experienced from the last couple days. Not to mention, she was bone tired, something she was feeling more and more as the adrenaline that kept her awake all this time seeped out of her. Luz huddled in closer to Eda’s embrace as she failed to stifle a yawn. She heard Eda chuckle and pat her shoulder.

“You said it, kid,” Eda said. “Ugh, every part of my body is sore after all that adventure. Let’s get some sleep, huh?” Luz hummed her agreement, her exhaustion quickly taking over.

“Yes, please,” King added from Luz’s arms. “Today has been a lot.” Luz felt Eda guide her back towards the Owl House and she automatically began walking. As exhausted as she was, her brain was still racing with the events of the day. She hadn’t realized when she and Lilith had gone through the portal back to the human realm that that would be her last look at her home. She’d done so much crying in the last couple days that she couldn’t quite bring herself to generate more tears, but her heart ached to see her mom. She told her mom everything and to not be able to run to her side as she made dinner and tell her about what all had happened just exhausted Luz further. Luz suddenly felt King begin to wiggle out of her arms and she realized she had walked all the way up to her room without even realizing it.

Luz desperately wanted to just face plant into her sleeping bag and pass out, but she knew she was still too wired for that. It felt wrong to not be able to tell her mom what had happened. Luz removed her cloak carefully, folding it and setting it aside before kicking off her shoes and slipping into her sleeping bag. She didn’t quite have the energy to change into her pajamas, but she was itching to figure out how she could communicate with her mom now that she no longer had access to the human realm, and by extension, any amount of phone service.

Luz settled into her sleeping bag before feeling a slight discomfort in her pocket. She removed the offending object and realized it was a piece of that Emperor’s mask that she’d managed to break off. Pride swelled in her chest as she recalled that moment; getting the upper hand over the most powerful creature on the Boiling Isles had been no small feat, and she’s a human who shouldn’t even be able to do magic! Luz couldn’t stop herself from grinning as she rolled to her side and picked up her phone. She couldn’t send any texts or phone calls, but she could still record her tellings of the events of the last couple days. It’ll be like video calling with her mom, she just wouldn’t be able to answer her. Or see her. Luz pulled up the camera app and adjusted the settings to record video, before retelling the tale of her adventures. It was therapeutic to say the least. After getting everything off her chest, she felt the exhaustion settle in even more and she knew she’d maybe get some sleep.

______

Lilith didn’t know what to do with herself. Her entire career, the large majority of her life had been shattered within the span of a day. Not that she had any regrets about that part, but she had so many regrets when it came to her sister. She watched as the human and the small demon launched themselves at her sister, how relieved Edalyn had sounded to see them and return their odd arm-wrapping gesture. Lilith felt guilt burn at her insides; she’d put them all through so much and now what was she to them? Edalyn was her family but these creatures also called her family, and it seemed they had every right to. Perhaps even more right to than herself. Her heart went cold at the thought, but she knew it to be true. The human- _Luz_ made that much clear. The way Edalyn begged her to make sure the Emperor didn’t touch her as she was being dragged away, how they’d fought nearly to the death just the day before, all over the hu- _LUZ’S_ safety. She felt a pit in her stomach as she thought of how she nearly impaled the girl on spikes at the Emperor’s castle, all to drain Edalyn’s magic. She was in disbelief that Edalyn was so committed to the girl that she actually wasted all of her magic trying to save her.

She was surprised still at the hu- _Luz’s_ ability with magic despite being human. She didn’t think humans had any magical ability, that’s what everyone was taught. But watching this girl, no older than her own protégée, perform magic had clearly proven that theory wrong. She was curious though, of the nature of her magic when they slipped into the human realm. It looked as though all of her magic ability was stripped away, but Lilith’s magic was just fine. But after Lilith performed the spell to share her sister’s curse and their own magical abilities were stripped away, Luz had given Edalyn something that allowed her to perform a light spell. One of those little pieces of paper she’d been using earlier to cast spells. She watched as the little ball of light floated up into the sky, hopeful for what the future might bring with such a smart girl helping guide the sisters through a life without magic.

She heard Eda say something about going to sleep and Lilith’s heart dropped a little. Her home had been in the Emperor’s castle. Where would she go now? She waited until she heard her sister’s footsteps go inside the house before sighing and lowering herself to the ground. Eda hadn’t been kidding, that curse really did wear you down. She felt her joints ache in a way they hadn’t before as she settled on the ground, her new lock of silver hair breaching her vision to remind her of what she’d done.

After the curse had transferred half of itself to Lilith and her sister returned to her normal witch state, the two opened their eyes and she immediately noticed her sister’s left eye was no longer the vibrant gold she’d known all her life, but a light grey. That, as well as what looked like a stark white streak in her sister’s hair branching from that closest to her now-grey eye. She didn’t have a mirror on her, but she was willing to bet with this new silver lock of hair she had, her right eye was a similar grey to her sister’s. A strange side effect of the curse, but certainly not the worst it could be. Lilith played with her new grey hairs, studying them between her fingers, wondering how this curse would effect the both of them now, when she heard footsteps approaching her from the direction of the house.

“Y’know, as angry as I am with you about literally everything you’ve done, I’m not letting you sleep outside,” Lilith looked up at her sister. She had her arms crossed and her trademark smirk on her face as she looked down at her. Relief bloomed throughout Lilith’s chest, but she tampered it down.

“I couldn’t, not after everything I’ve done-“

“Stow it,” Edalyn interrupted. “I may be mad, but you destroyed your own life for me today. I think that makes up for some of the shit you’ve pulled, at least enough for you to sleep on the couch for the night. I don’t exactly have any spare mattresses.” Edalyn snorted and offered a hand to Lilith. Lilith hesitated, but took her sister’s hand and allowed her to help her up.

“Thank you, sister,” Lilith said quietly. Eda simply hummed in response as they began to walk towards the house. A thought struck Lilith as they made their way inside. “What was that arm thing that girl and that demon did to you earlier?” She asked. Eda laughed as she closed the door behind them.

______

Eda was exhausted. And that was putting it mildly. She always felt the aches throughout her entire body after coming back from being the owl beast, but with the curse advancing her age so quickly, it only made those aches worse every time it happened. She genuinely didn’t know what it meant for her to be sharing her curse with Lily now. She had no more magic and magic is what kept her from turning into the beast. Did that mean she’d never turn into the beast again? She would have to do some research on curses later, but for now she was wiped out.

As she led Luz inside, she gave Hooty a quick pat and a smile. Despite his owl features not being very conducive to facial expressions, she could still tell that he was smiling back at her. She squeezed Luz’s shoulder gently and watched the girl trudge up the stairs in a bit of a trance. She couldn’t blame the kid, they’d all been through a lot in the last couple days. Eda sighed and snapped her fingers, confused for a brief moment and then feeling her heart turn to ice when she remembered she couldn’t do magic anymore. How tedious, she had to actually go up to her room to change into her pajamas. Ugh. Not having magic is the pits, but she was going to face it with the same optimism Luz always did. She grew up without magic and was making it work; Eda knew she could do the same.

She caught her reflection in her periphery, in the mirror hanging over the fireplace. She turned to face it properly, studying her appearance. When Lily cast the spell to share her curse, Eda was relieved when she transformed back to her witch form. When they opened their eyes though, she saw that Lily’s right eye had turned grey and there was a streak of grey in her hair starting right near her eye. She couldn’t tell at the time, but she had an inkling suspicion that she had something similar in her own appearance changed too. She did notice as she was hugging Luz that the gem embedded in her chest remained black, a sign that the curse was still ever present and simmering in the background. But now that she could see herself in the mirror, she could confirm that her suspicions were right; her left eye was now the same grey as her sister’s right eye and the grey hair she already had had turned to a stark white in the same fashion as Lily’s. Just one streak. Although, with her hair greying as it was, it wasn’t terribly distinguishable, not like Lily’s.

Speaking of her sister, Eda looked around and realized that Lilith hadn’t followed them inside. Her heart ached; she wanted to be mad at her, wanted to make her sleep outside, Titan knows she deserved it, but Eda knew she wasn’t about to let that happen. She _kinda sorta_ made up for some of her mistakes tonight after all. She was going to need that explanation now that she wasn’t on a murderous rampage looking for Luz. Eda scoffed and went back outside to see her sister had only moved to sit on the ground where they had landed earlier. Part of her wanted to just tell Hooty to make sure she stayed safe while she slept in the dirt, but she bit her tongue and moved towards her sister.

“Y’know, as angry as I am with you about literally everything you’ve done, I’m not letting you sleep outside,” Eda said announcing her presence as she approached. Lily looked up at her with a glimmer of hope in her eyes before they were cast back down in remorse.

“I couldn’t, not after everything I’ve done-“

“Stow it,” Eda interrupted. “I may be mad, but you destroyed your own life for me today. I think that makes up for some of the shit you’ve pulled, at least enough for you to sleep on the couch for the night. I don’t exactly have any spare mattresses.” Eda snorted and offered a hand to Lily. She waited for her sister to take her hand, watching her sister’s internal war rage behind her mismatched eyes. But after a moment, Lily took her hand and Eda helped hoist her up to her feet again.

“Thank you, sister,” Lily said quietly. Eda simply hummed in response as they began to walk back towards the house. After they crossed the threshold, Lily suddenly piped up. “What was that arm thing that girl and that demon did to you earlier?” She asked. Eda laughed as she closed the door behind them. Something told her that the path to patching up their relationship would be rocky, but definitely achievable.


	2. Nightmares pt. 1 - Luz

Luz stood before Eda who was chained up in her Owl Beast form. She called out Eda’s name, but the beast only turned around to the source of the sound, not in recognition. Luz lifted her light up and pleaded with the owl beast,  _ please, it’s me _ . The beast shrieked as it reared up on its hind legs, claws ready to strike. As the beast’s hand came down, Luz felt herself scream before she found herself on the floor of a different room. She was on her knees, weird little hands holding her down. She looked up and saw a shape approaching her. It flickered between Lilith and Belos as it drew closer and Luz began desperately trying to free herself from her prone position. Just to get her hands on Owlbert, or even just one of her glyphs to defend herself. But her hands refused to move. Her feet refused to move. She could hear the thundering of her own heartbeat until it wasn’t her heartbeat, but a giant heart suspended over a throne. It was beating erratically as Belos suddenly appeared in the throne, breathing heavily until he was brought a broken palisman. Luz tried to stifle her scream as Belos forcibly broke the palisman and raised it to his face to absorb its energy. She tried to stop herself from screaming but she could hear it happening anyway. She felt herself scream harder when the cold blue eye of Belos suddenly trained itself on to her, then suddenly was much closer, mere inches away from her own face. 

“LUZ!”

Luz’s eyes snapped open. She could barely see through the tears and the haze of sleep and the image of Belos’ eye still imprinted in her vision, and began to thrash around to get away from it. She felt her wrists be held down as a weight sat on her legs to keep her from kicking, but she stilled when she smelled something familiar. It was earthy; smelled mildly of coffee and wood and wilderness after rain and  _ home _ . Luz’s vision finally cleared enough for her to see Eda staring down at her with worry written all over her face. 

“E-Eda?” Luz gasped. As her faculties returned to her, she noted her face was drenched in sweat and tears. She noted that she was still in her sleeping bag and Eda’s strong hands were holding her wrists as gently as possible while still keeping her restrained. She noted King standing behind Eda, clutching his stuffed rabbit toy and worry evident in his features as well. 

As Luz woke up properly, Eda loosened her grip on Luz’s wrists and turned to sit on the ground next to Luz. Luz scrambled to unzip her sleeping bag and moved to hug Eda around her waist, burying her face into her mentor’s stomach. Eda said nothing, shocked at first, but saddened as she placed a hand on Luz’s back. She moved her hand in what she hoped was comforting pats (they worked on King all the time anyway) and let Luz cry.

“ _Eda_ ,” Luz’s muffled sob came out. “ _Eda, estás bien, estás bien, no eres la bestia búho y no estás petrificado y estás bien_ ,” Eda let out a chuckle and placed her hand in Luz’s hair.

“Kid, you know I have no idea what you’re saying,” She said. Luz hiccuped as she pulled away from her mentor and sat back, rubbing away the sleep and tears and sweat from her face. She felt King’s weight in her lap as she dried her eyes and let out a watery chuckle.

“Sorry,” Luz said hoarsely. She dropped her hands finally and hugged King tightly as her gaze finally met Eda’s. 

“No need to apologize, kiddo,” Eda assured with a soft voice. “Do you wanna talk about what made you scream so much?” Luz shivered as flashes of the nightmare replayed in her mind and she felt King hug her a little more tightly. 

“It’s...just a lot,” Luz admitted. She mindlessly pet King’s fur as she looked back up at her mentor. “I don’t know if I can right now.” Eda gave her a sad smile.

“That’s alright,” she said. “We’ve got a lot to talk about today anyway. I wanna know how you guys managed to find me in the depths of the Conformatorium! That’ll be a good story over some breakfast, huh?” Eda leaned over to elbow Luz and Luz smiled. She was quite proud of herself for all that she achieved the day before. She was eager to recount her tales of heroics and how she single-handedly conquered Warden Wrath and all of the guards when she heard a slight movement by the door. 

Lilith stood in the doorway, hiding slightly behind the doorframe, a mix of emotions playing across her face. Luz immediately felt fear, but that was quickly washed over with a mixture of anger and pity at the woman. Lilith seemed to waffle for a moment, not expecting to be caught, before she cleared her throat.

“I just....wanted to make sure everyone was okay,” she said awkwardly. “I heard screaming....but...I,” Lilith took a breath, her eyes trained on the ground as she grabbed a fistful of her nightgown. “I’ll go make breakfast.” And with that, she turned and left. 

Luz listened to her retreating footsteps and contemplated the odd sense of....relief? Grandiosity? Pride? In how nervous and ashamed Lilith sounded. There was a strange feeling of triumph in watching your kidnapper and near-murderer, as well as the woman that irreversibly cursed her own sister and Luz’s mentor/mother figure, fumble over her own words in your presence and run away in shame. But Luz only frowned. She didn’t like the feeling. Despite the sense of justice, she didn’t know if she wanted the knowledge that just the sight of her was enough to drive Lilith into a fit. Luz heard Eda groan as she stood up, some of her joints cracking audibly on the way. 

“Alright, I’m gonna make sure she doesn’t set anything on fire or mix up my potions with ingredients,” Eda said as she stretched. She looked down at Luz with a smile. “You want a minute before you come down?” Luz smiled at her mentor, relieved that she didn’t need to ask for it, and nodded. Eda left the room and Luz looked down at King in her lap.

“Sorry for scaring you,” Luz said quietly. King hopped off her lap and collected his stuffed doll from the ground. 

“The King of Demons is scared by nothing!” King proclaimed, lifting his doll up. He turned back to Luz and leveled her with a worried gaze. “But...I was worried. Now! Let us go get some breakfast and recount the tales of our bravery and heroics!” Luz watched as he scrambled out of the room, smiling after him. She chuckled a little before taking stock of her surroundings.

Sleeping bag, picture of mama, phone, Good Witch Azura book five, cloak. Luz reached towards the cloak but stopped herself. She sighed and stood up, realizing she was still in her clothes from the day before. As she rustled through the trunk she kept her clothes in, she tried to keep the nightmare from creeping back into her thoughts. She should check on Willow and Gus; she hadn’t seen them since Lilith attacked them back at the castle. Luz gripped the shirt she was holding tight enough that she heard the fabric strain in her hands. Their attacker was downstairs in her house, her safe haven, her  _ home _ . And for the time being, her only home.

Luz froze. She hadn’t told anyone about what she’d done to the portal yet. She finished changing and grabbed a blanket, coughing at the dust cloud that erupted when she shook it out. After the dust settled, she wrapped the blanket around herself and made her way downstairs. She felt safer having something to hide in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to post all three but then I realized how LONG that would make this chapter, so I’m divvying them up in their own separate chapters. Kudos and comments are appreciated!!! <3

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t usually post fics since I never finish them, and I do have a second chapter kind of in the works? But I mostly wanted to explore how everyone came down from literally escaping with their lives. I know we got that extra bit with Luz recording herself for her mom, but like. She’s been awake for the last two days, that poor girl needs to sleep. I found it odd that she kept herself awake long enough to record that little video.   
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!! Let me know if y’all wanna see the next chapter I’m cooking up


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